Prem Jain, entrepreneur and CEO of startup Pensando Systems, will deliver the address during the 2017 Graduate Studies Commencement Ceremony on June 15.

Once described as the "heart" of Cisco, Mr. Jain held various leadership roles at Cisco Systems,  most recently serving as Senior Vice President of Insieme, building next generation data center solutions with its Software Defined Networking vision with Application Centric Infrastructure.

Mr. Jain served as a Senior Member of the Founding Team at Crescendo Systems and as Senior Technical Advisor at Cisco Systems, Inc. since May 2011. He was the Senior Vice President of the Routing Technology Group at Cisco Systems until July 2005 and Senior Vice President of Server Access Virtualization Business Unit until May 2011. Mr. Jain also served as the Vice President of GM EWAN Business at Cisco Systems.

Prem Jain is the recipient of two patents and holds a bachelor of engineering degree with honors from Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani. Jain is an alumnus of the UC Davis master of science program in Engineering.

"As a graduate alumnus of UC Davis, Prem Jain will be able to share insights that will be extremely relevant to our graduating master's and doctoral students" said Prasant Mohapatra, Vice Provost of Graduate Education and Dean of Graduate Studies. "Students and families will benefit from hearing about Prem's entrepreneurial values, successes and challenges​."

Learn more about the 2017 Graduate Studies commencement Ceremony here.

About Graduate Studies at UC Davis

Graduate Studies at UC Davis includes 99 dynamic degree programs and a diverse and interactive student body from around the world. Known for our state-of-the-art research facilities, productive laboratories and progressive spirit – UC Davis offers collaborative and interdisciplinary curricula through graduate groups and designated emphasis options – bringing students and faculty of different academic disciplines together to address real-world challenges.

UC Davis master’s and doctoral graduates become leaders in their fields – researchers, teachers, politicians, mentors and entrepreneurs. Graduates go on to guide, define and impact change within our global community.

For information on Graduate Studies’ current strategic initiatives, visit grad.ucdavis.edu.